Erasing initial gains, the Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex on Tuesday fell over 34 points as investors booked profits in auto, banking and healthcare stocks amid a
weak trend in the European markets.
HOW THE MARKETS FAREDThe 30-share index, which rallied nearly 265 points to hit the day's high of 16,766.19 in early trade, succumbed to profit-booking and settled 34.30 points down at 16,467.44 points. It had
plunged almost 665 points in the past two trading sessions.
Brokers said the selling was triggered by a slide in the European markets in the opening trade, on account of the
deepening euro-zone crisis, and paring of initial gains on the Asian bourses.
SPECIAL: Global economic crisis: How will India fare?They said fears of another hike in interest rates by the Reserve Bank of India later this week, too, had a negative impact on the trading sentiments, forcing players to keep their commitments restricted.
Similarly, the broad-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty ended in the negative territory with a marginal fall of 5.85 points at 4,940.95, after touching the day's high of 5,030.15 and a low of 4,911.05.
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Defensive stocks help during volatility Bucking the trend, the two most-heaviest on the Sensex with 20 per cent weight - Reliance Industries and Infosys - managed to close in the positive zone and averted any major fall. RIL rose 0.61 per cent, while IT bellwether Infosys was down 1.21 per cent.
Major losers, which dragged the Sensex down, were State Bank of India, ICICI Bank, Larsen and Toubro, HDFC Ltd, Tata Motors, Coal India, Cipla and ONGC.
- With inputs from agencies
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